• I’ve been an aspiring author since I was eight years old.  When I was eight, I started writing my first book, a mystery.  I scanned the first page and uploaded it for you to peruse (pre-edited and with plenty of errors).  Before I graduated from high school, I wrote several books, none of which I published.  Most were either in the science fiction/fantasy or action/adventure genres.  When I was 15 years old, I entered one of my novels in a contest sponsored by Bantam Books.  The winner’s submission was published as a Choose Your Own Adventure.  Although my submission, "The Two Sides of Africa," was not published, it was a finalist, and the editors at Bantam wrote me a personal commendation.  My early years of prolific novel writing have ceased, but blogging helps me keep up my writing skills.  In the future, I plan to return to writing fictional novels.  When I have time.
• I am an amateur cartographer, cartoonist, and illustrator.  When I was young, I drew maps, lots of them.  Just ask my brother and sister, who thought I was really strange for spending many hours by myself in my room alone working on fictional maps and companion stories.  I myself wonder how I ever managed to have a social life while I was a secondary school student.  I drew detailed maps of over two dozen fictional cities, states, countries, and worlds.  Some of these maps are complements to some of my stories, including the map of Northmark, a fictional land where one of my novels is set.  I uploaded samples of the different types of maps I used to draw.  I’m still working on one map, but I haven’t touched it for a couple of years.  I used to drew maps freehand, but in recently I’ve used Microsoft’s Paint program to draw them.  I have little time nowadays for cartography.  I also enjoy drawing cartoons and illustrations, particularly for my books.  In fourth and fifth grades, I won school awards for two of my illustrations.  I also developed many cartoon characters, and I drew comic strips such as "Kelvin" for my college newspaper and "Jersey," a cartoon world I created in high school.  "Jersey" was especially fun with characters such as "Greyfoot the Rabbit," a drunken rabbit who resembled Garfield the Cat, Walter W. Walterson, a geeky fellow with a receding hairline, and the "Vegging Fruitcakes," a music group with a celery stalk on guitar, a carrot bassist, and a potato drummer.  I don’t have any cartoon samples, but I’ll upload one if I find it.
• I was active i school programs, and I starred in four productions before I graduated.  In fourth grade, I played Ichibod Crane in our school’s rendition of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  In fourth grade, I wrote and starred in a short play called "How Little Big Chief Tamed the Mountain" written for a friend of mine named Matt who has severe a speech impediment.  Matt played Big Chief, and Tracy, a girl who was my first school crush, played his daughter.  In sixth grade, I portrayed Thomas Edison in our school musical, "The Electric Sunshine Man," singing two solos.  In tenth grade, I went on to star in "Teen II," our high school musical.  I left choir after tenth grade and never performed again except for singing in church choirs.  I’ve thought about trying my hand at community theater, but this urge somewhere deep down in my lengthy to-do list.
• I think mean people suck.  I’m a pretty positive and cordial person, as you can probably tell from my blogging.  I am relatively intolerant of people who have an overly negative outlook on life and are obnoxiously rude, including screamers and condescenders.  We’re like oil and water.  We don’t mix well.  I turn them off, and I do my best to avoid them.  You can be a shameless self-promoter, a egotistic showboat, a gossip, a slacker, a know-it-all, a prankster, a whiner, quirky, dogmatic, or any variation thereof, but please, just be civil.  Leave behind your bad attitude and check your rudeness at the door when you come talk to me–I don’t want to hear it.  I will be civil to you and expect you to be civil to me.  If you must be negative, so be it, but for heaven’s sake, don’t be rude and/or condescending.  You might get away with it for a time, but the odds are you will reap what you sow.  Nice people won’t give you the time of day when you need it.  So just give in and try being nice before we turn out to be just like you and treat you rudely or look down on you.
• I have a weakness for baked goods, and I want Girl in the Rain to send me baked goods for Christmas every year from now on.  "Girl in the Rain," put me up to writing this blog entry, so she must indulge my craving by baking delicious treats and mailing them to me annually wherever I am in the world.  Girl, please send a care package to Paraguay next year!  I enjoy snickerdoodles, peanut brittle, and haystacks!

Now I have to tag five bloggers who need to tell you on their blogs about themselves.  So, take it away Doodlespace, Tortmaster, Quemino’s World, Muna, and Editfish!